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The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Asian Network today announces that it will descend upon five festivals as part of its Summer of Melas programme, bringing live music, highlights, picture galleries, videos and performances from some of the best Asian artists to listeners on-air and online at .

Kicking off with the Leicester Mela on Sunday 10 July, the station will visit Cardiff (17 July), Manchester (23/24 July), with the London Mela being the centre of the station's Mela coverage (4 September). Increasing its northern support through its new partnership with the Newcastle Mela, the summer will finish there on 11 September.

Leading Asian Network presenters Tommy Sandhu, Noreen Khan and Sonia Deol will be the main stage hosts across all sites, with weekend and late-night presenters including DJ Kayper, Sunny & Shay, Panjabi Hit Squad and Dipps Bhamrah on DJ duties across the nation. Throughout the Summer of Melas programme, listeners can enjoy performances from some of the biggest UK and international Asian artists. Headliners throughout the season so far include Jassi Sidhu, JK and Malkit Singh, with new talents Jernade Miah, Shide Boss and The Truth amongst those being championed across the summer.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Asian Network will enjoy a sixth year of partnership with the London Mela including music stage across two zones, the Main Stage and the Mix Tent hosted by Nihal. London Mela line-ups will be announced in the coming weeks.

In the week leading up to each event Tommy Sandhu and Noreen Khan will focus around the location of each Mela, showcasing local talent and broadcasting content from the heart of its community.

Mark Strippel, Head of Music and Events, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Asian Network, says: "This is ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Asian Network's sixth year of national Mela coverage and we've continued to raise the quality of our coverage and programming, with the aim of increasing combined audience reach of more than 1 million last year and engaging even more British-Asian audiences nationwide. Our London Mela line-ups will be announced in the coming weeks and are particularly exciting and unique this year."

Ahead of the season, the will host a wealth of information, including the station's coverage, artist line-ups and travel information. During the summer, the site will host highlights, picture galleries and videos of your favourite artists and presenters.

Following the success of last year's Mela Music Red Button programme, the station will present another Red Button offering in September – broadcast details will be confirmed over the following weeks.

Asian Network brings its listeners the best coverage of all the Melas it visits this summer, from showcasing great acts, to broadcasting key highlights, to filming, photo galleries and much more.

SG